Thursday, August 17, 2017

Provisional RKSF Developer Diary - O Captain, My Captain!

It's been an honor serving under you...

Hello, everyone. It's time for the next installment of the RKSF Developer Diary.

Before we get started on today's entry, there's a proverbial elephant in the room that I need to address. Many among you may be aware of the fact that I work as the de facto assistant manager of a Thai restaurant to pay the bills, keep a roof over my head, and replace any equipment I need for my localization work (whether it be my glasses, my hard drive, or my entire computer system). To borrow a phrase from Spiritia: "But people... people aren't the same. People can't be replaced."...

Two days after my last blog post, Betty Toye, the owner of our restaurant, suddenly passed away. The story of her passing is a tragic one, and one that should give fans of Angel Beats a serious case of déjà vu. In all honesty, this story isn't mine to tell. If I mention that Betty's death felt too close to Masami Iwasawa's for comfort, I'm sure the vast majority of you will be able to piece together what happened and how.

Let me be completely serious for a moment:

If you ever take a blow to the head, for any reason, go see a doctor immediately. It doesn't matter if you feel alright or not, if you're part of a sports team and that head injuries "just come with the territory". It only takes a moment of misplaced bravado to give yourself a death sentence. Even if you do try to get help, the doctors might not be able to get to you in time...

It goes without saying that things have been rough at my day job without Betty around. Unlike most bosses, she was pretty hands-on with everything. Friendly, outgoing, and in terrific shape for someone her age (she was 67, but had the energy of someone in their thirties). As you can imagine, as the de facto assistant manager, it's been my duty to step up and take charge of things at the restaurant while my manager (Betty's son-in-law) tends to his family. It's been a rough couple of weeks, and there's nothing we can do but move forward on our own.

I'm sorry for starting things off on a depressing note, but this is something I really needed to get off of my chest. Betty wasn't the first person close to me to have died this year (my friend Richard passed away in March), but this is the first time someone so integral to my day-to-day life has died. It's no exaggeration to say that there's a dark void at the restaurant that we're doing our best to fill. It's only a matter of time before we're back to business as usual (pun not intended). If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know exactly where I am and what I'm doing.

I suppose it's perfect timing that I was able to hand off the revised source code to our publisher before this recent slew of developments.

Now that I've said what I needed to say, let's get back into the swing of things. Join me in a few hours for our regularly-scheduled programming...(Oh, who am I kidding? We've never had a "regular" schedule...)

Site Introduction

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the main English blog site for all things Rosenkreuzstilette (RKS for short). RKS is a Mega Man clone doujin game created by [erka:es] and is a much-needed piece of work in a world where Capcom won't release Mega Man Universe or Legends 3.

Formerly a duo, [erka:es] is currently a one-man show run by WOMI, the series main artist. There's a link below to their main website, if you're so inclined, and if you're interested, you can try the game's English demo or purchase it at DLSite (link below)! The possibilities are endless!